Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi)

[Philip J. Fry]

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7v79SOb3bm zsO0fUVFwtH9Jj1yEoI_sHVMg&usqp=CAU

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pr7rZV1f3w

IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14034966/) / wiki (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_and_Fantasy#E xternal_links) / RT (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wheel_of_fortune_and_fantasy) / Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/wheel-of-fortune-and-fantasy)

Official website:
US and Canada (https://www.filmmovement.com/wheel-of-fortune-and-fantasy) / UK and Ireland (https://www.modernfilms.com/wheeloffortuneandfantasy)

[Peng]

This feels like Rohmer with a bit of Hong's playfulness, especially as one story has a Hong-ish zoom that triggers a structural twist. The three tales are cannily ordered too, making the whole become more than their sum. The first one eases us into the film's overall ethos of human's direct connections and chance's unpredictable misdirection. The second is perversely fascinating in its toying of perspectives and sympathies, although I don't know if the ironic sting is really necessary even though it fits the theme. The third tale is the most explicit iteration so far of that ethos, and its borderline sci-fi conceit (probably necessitated by it being the only one filmed during the pandemic) has a pretty disarming atmosphere that makes its story of locating the cathartic real within the human-made artifice, already a subject I find potent, all the more powerful and moving. 8/10